


Eventually

by Spades13



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: A Bit of Angst Because I Can't Write not Angst, But Only a Little Bit - Freeform, Chiba and Hayami Being Cute, Chiba is Depressed, Established Relationship, Fluff, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Mental Health Issues, awkward beans, but it's actually sweet, i love these two, like i always do, these two are so underrated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:33:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29934162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spades13/pseuds/Spades13
Summary: Chiba and Hayami. The two who don't let their feelings show.But they do.The stoic snipers of the E-Class show their feelings often.But only to each other.
Relationships: Chiba Ryuunosuke/Hayami Rinka
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	Eventually

One positive aspect of clouds is how incredibly they enhance an already stunning sunset. A clear sky is beautiful at dusk, as the vivid gradient migrates with the sun, but when clouds insist on blotting out the light, the result can be described as nothing short of dazzling. A fluffy white canvas drenched colour, accepting and absorbing the light cast from each direction. Blue and orange are playing tag in that cloud, pink and purple are stacked peacefully atop each other in the one next to it. And they change. With every slight breeze, the clouds morph, grow, or disappear completely. Some fuse together, creating a playground full of colour, none left out of the games of chase and catch. Some spread themselves too thin, unable to support the weight, and pass off the last dregs of the colour they’d housed to the nearest passerby. 

The downside to cloudy nights comes after the sunset. The blanket of clouds eventually have to relinquish their grasp on the light, and toss the rainbow toward the horizon, allowing the sun to paint the sky somewhere else in the world as it rises. At night, the clouds are dull. Dark. Sad. They stand between the earth and the stars, forcing upon both parties an impossible game of hide and seek. At least the stars have the moon on their side of the veil. The crescent moon, so beautiful, yet shroud in such mystery but to a handful of people. 

Chiba isn’t sure why, but he aches for the moon. Staring up into the void that is the sky, he’s already forgotten the smile that had decorated his face minutes prior; before the clouds had become black and night had officially fallen. 

A soft breeze coerces his bangs into a dance, and for a moment, his vision is unimpaired. He’s grateful when the wind releases his hair and it gently resettles itself. He prefers to view the world through a darkened haze. It seems appropriate, given how truly screwed up the world is when you pause to consider the finer details and inner workings of everything you see on a day-to-day basis. 

It’s like a building. Everyone sees the bricks and windows, the fancy paint jobs and festive decorations. Few stop to consider the skeleton, the framework. Steel beams to guide the brick upwards, rather than drifting to an angle, fighting to keep every comparatively minuscule prism of stone in place during even the most powerful of earthquakes. 

Then there’s the foundation. The part of the structure which only those who built it think about. Tons upon tons of concrete, working tirelessly to hold everything up, keep everything together. Like the Greek god Atlas, forced to shoulder the weight of the Earth for all eternity. A single misstep and the world goes tumbling. A crack in the foundation, and the building collapses. 

“What are you thinking about?” 

He flinches, but slightly, at Hayami’s voice. 

“Skyscrapers.” Chiba smirks and Hayami nods thoughtfully before joining him. She regrets wearing shorts as she sits down next to him in the grass, overgrown blades tickling her legs, a desire to scratch already growing. 

“So.” She sighs, pulling her knees to her chest and resting her chin atop them. 

“So…” Chiba mimics her tone, finally tearing his gaze from the blank slate of sky as his head falls forward. 

They sit in silence for a while, as they usually do when they meet like this. Sometimes, they’ll talk for hours. Others, no words are needed. Always, they leave the park feeling lighter, both with subtle smiles settled comfortably across their features. 

Tonight, Chiba isn’t sure what he needs. On days when one of them needs to talk, they’ve started already. The other will listen intently until the end, occasionally offering advice, but not always. They find it therapeutic to simply tell the other what’s going on, whether it results in a solution or more silence on the other end. The silent nights are those which one of them can’t be alone. Tonight isn’t one of those nights. He wouldn’t mind being alone, but he’d texted Hayami as soon as he’d reached their favourite clearing. Why? He can’t quite figure that out. 

“Ryu.” Her stoic, yet gentle voice shakes him from his thoughts once again. “Why are you crying?” 

He shouldn’t be surprised, but he is. Hayami is just one of those people. She doesn’t need to see his eyes to know he’s blinking back tears. She can tell by his demeanor, no matter how well he thinks he’s imitating his usual self. 

“I…” He tries, but his voice gives out.

“I mean, you don’t have to tell me, I just…” a quick glint catches Hayami’s eye as a solitary tear falls through his hair, landing on denim-clad crossed legs below with a muted splat. “If you want to…” 

“Honestly,” Chiba takes a breath and manages to staunch the flow, “I’m not sure why.” 

“Do you want to tell me what happened with your parents?” 

He breathes another sigh in a failed attempt to slow his pounding heart. She waits patiently while he gathers his thoughts, sorting out where to begin. 

“They uh…” He’s not sure he wants to admit this, but he is sure that no judgment will come from Hayami. 

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

 _“Ryunosuke.” He hardly has a foot in the door when his father’s scolding tone pierces his ears._

_He groans internally as he slips out of his shoes._ “Full name? What did I do…?” 

_“Hi…” his brows reach to one another as he comes upon the sight of his parents sitting on the couch. His father’s hard gaze tracks his every move, not unlike Chiba’s own eye peering through a scope. His mother’s head is bowed, shoulders hunched and trembling. She’s crying._

_“Roll up your sleeves.”_

_Silence follows his father’s command._

_“What?” Chiba physically shakes off the hold of confusion with his response._

_“Roll up your sleeves.”_

_“Why?”_

_“Just do it.”_

_“Tell me why.”_

_“Ryu.” His mother’s eyes are floating in their own tears when she looks up to him, pleading. “Please.”_

_“Tell me why.” He crosses his arms, quivering fingers hidden within the folds of his school blazer._

_“We…” His father sighs and thinks a moment, his silence pressing against Chiba’s ears like water ten meters below sea level. “We found these…”_

_A small black rectangle._

_“What is-?” he stops. He knows._

_“Ryu, what are you doing?” His mother’s sob nearly masks her plea. “Talk to us, sweetheart, please!”_

_“Mom, I-”_

_“How could you do something so stupid?!” His father is on his feet now, and throws the case to the ground, sending fragments of plastic and the contents within clattering and skittering about the room. “What the hell are you thinking?!”_

_“No, I-“_

_“You never open up! Just tell us what’s going on, please.”_

_“I-“_

_“Do you realize what kind of mistake you’ve made here?!”_

_“Listen-!“_

_“My baby, my baby!”_

_“Look what you’ve done to your mother! Are you happy now?!”_

_He gives up. The words of his parents wash over him in a rush as they always do. Open up? Talk? How can one do such a thing when the party begging them to speak won’t shut up for even a second?_

_Silence falls eventually. Apart from his father’s panting and his mother’s stifled sobs._

_“Well?” His father, finally interested in listening, seethes._

_“Why were you going through my desk?”_

_Silence._

_“You think you have a right to ask that right now?” Incredulity from his father. His mother sobs again._

_“Yes.” He stands his ground._

_“Ryu…” his mother whines and stands, reaching for him. He backs away. He’s never been one for hugs._

_“No.” He flicks his bangs so a single eye glares, unobstructed, into his parents’ hearts. “Why were you in there?”_

_“Does it really matter?” His father has always hated the burgundy stare. Chiba sometimes thinks he’s scared of his own son’s gaze._

_“Yes. How do you expect me to trust you enough to tell you what’s going on in my head if you do shit like this?”_

_“Language!” His mother’s instincts are too strong to resist the scolding._

_“Whatever.” He huffs and turns to put his shoes back on._

_“Ryu.” His father’s hand appears on his shoulder and Chiba grabs the wrist, but thinks better before breaking the old man’s arm. “Where are you going?”_

_“Out.” Is all he says before throwing his father’s arm down and slamming the door behind him._

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

“So yeah…” Chiba sighs as he falls, the grass accepting his splayed arms with hundreds of tiny, ticklish hugs. He stares up at the black sky, though can’t decipher what is a cloud or strand of raven hair. A rustle next to him lets him know Hayami has also converted the field to a futon. Her warm fingers crawl their way over to his, and he hopes she won’t notice the tremble. 

She will. She always will. 

“Ryu…” Her mild voice shatters the cozy silence and his fingers twitch. She squeezes his hand in apology. “Can I ask you something?” 

“Sure.” He takes a breath. He knows what’s coming. 

“Did...” She falters. A breath. Two. “What were they for?” 

“I never used them.” It’s his turn to halt the tremor building in her. “I… God I’ve never said this out loud…” He laughs, but the tears pressing against the walls of his mind strangle the sound of joy. “In primary school… People were scared of me. I was too serious. My… my eyes freak people out… I couldn’t talk to the other kids. Hardly any of my teachers would give me the time of day. My own parents couldn’t look me in the eye. I just felt… alone. I grew out my hair for junior high to better my chances at making friends but… it just didn’t happen. I got bullied for having long hair… Looking emo… Whatever… My grades started slipping, my parents were constantly scolding me for that, but I just didn’t care. I was… god I sound emo now… I was numb. I didn’t feel anything when I failed a test or got teased or yelled at. It sucked.

“The day I got notice that I would be moving to E-Class, a few guys from D-Class ganged up on me after school. They tried to get a rise out of me, but I didn’t react. I guess that pissed them off because one of them punched me in the face. It hurt. And when I realized that it hurt… I was… happy. I wanted him to keep going. It was the first thing I’d felt in months. But he and his friends just left. The pain didn’t last long. I was numb again by the time I got off campus. So… I bought the razors then just kinda walked around town for a while. 

“When I finally got home, my parents were waiting. The school had notified them about E-Class. My dad screamed at me for the first time. I’d never heard him yell like that. Haven’t since. It scared me. My mom was crying and begging to know why I’d let my grades get so out of hand. It made me feel guilty. When they were done, I just went to my room and cried. It was… relieving. I felt so much that night. Like every negative emotion I should have had over the last few years came forward. When I finally finished my meltdown, I put the razors in the back of my desk drawer. But I never felt the need to use them. Especially once I started in E-Class.” 

Hayami waits a few breaths to be sure he’s truly finished speaking before she asks. “Why did you keep them?” 

“I honestly forgot about them.” The truth. She knows. 

“Then… why didn’t you just roll up your sleeves when your dad asked?” 

“I know it makes me look guilty. But it was the way he demanded it. Accusatory. I mean… I guess he was accusing me of something so that makes sense. But still. He could have asked me what they were and given me a chance to explain, but he just jumped right into the demands and scolding. Like always.” 

“I get it.” Hayami lets her head loll to the side so her eyes are locked on the damp cheek not thirty centimeters from her. “I’m sorry.” 

“Thank you, Rin.” His head falls in the same manner and his bangs part to unveil one burgundy iris. He doesn’t desperately scramble to conceal it. Not with her. She doesn’t mind the intense stare. “Thank you for listening to me.” 

“Any time.” Her smile is small but contagious as one fixes itself upon Chiba’s lips as well. She opts to ignore the tears still oozing from his eyes. He won’t want to talk about that. 

“Hey, Rinka?” his voice is soft, wavering in the short distance between his mouth and her ear. 

“Hmm?” 

“I love you.” The first time he’d said it. 

“I love you too, Ryunosuke.” Her smile tugs the corners of her lips ever so slightly wider. 

_“No cracks in this foundation.”_ Chiba smiles as he studies every speck of copper and gold scattered within Hayami’s emerald eyes. _“The clouds will pass eventually.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Fluff fluff fluff...
> 
> I love these two, in case you couldn't tell by my tags. I'm not great in the romance department, but they aren't either so awkward crying date it is! 
> 
> For real though, it's kinda nice to write a (slightly) lighter-toned story once in a while, especially considering some of the others I currently have in the works *cackles maniacally.* 
> 
> Let me know what you thought of my sweet babies being sweet babies if you want. Oh, and if you want to see one-shots revolving around any more pairings in the class, let me know and I'll do my best to make it happen!


End file.
